


DannyMay 2020 Daily Dose of Drama

by ImAGiraffacorn



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Breathe, Childhood, Corruption, DannyMay (Danny Phantom), DannyMay 2020, Death Day, Doctor - Freeform, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Eyes, Family, Flowers, Gloves, Horror, Isolation, Lightning - Freeform, Lost - Freeform, Mask, Moon, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Ooze, Reflection, Regret, Science, Second Chance, Sky - Freeform, bones - Freeform, break - Freeform, buried, diner, doors, glow - Freeform, heat - Freeform, strange, stuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:40:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 5,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23950015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImAGiraffacorn/pseuds/ImAGiraffacorn
Summary: Works for the DannyMay 2020 event! Tags and ratings will be updated as I post more chapters. Chapters that I feel require a warning will have them in the notes.Event is run by @dannymayevent on tumblr. All prompts are from them.
Comments: 56
Kudos: 93





	1. Day One: Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! I'm back and actually trying to write for a whole gosh diddly darn month! I (somehow) have two jobs right now, so I'm not sure how I will pull this off, but I have every intention of giving it my best. That being said, I am intending to keep these short and sweet, unless something strikes my fancy and I go off, which is entirely possible.  
> If anyone feels like a chapter requires a warning I didn't include, PLEASE let me know! (Except major character deaths. In part because there's no continuity between stories and they're all super short to begin with, and in part because the main character of the show is quite literally dead to begin with, so it's kind of hard to kill him again (not that I don't try))
> 
> All works are also posted to my tumblr @mr-lancers-english-class.

“The eyes are the windows to the soul.” Danny wasn’t sure who had said that, but he had the distinct feeling they knew more than they let on. At least, they knew more about the whole “life-and-death” shebang than they let on. Or maybe they didn’t. Maybe they just happened to hit the nail right on the head, swinging their sledgehammer around in a dark room and somehow missing all the small children having a very chaotic dance party.

When he looked in the mirror, Danny never knew which set of eyes he would see staring back. He could never guess whether he would be blinded by the green ectoplasmic light of Phantom’s or if he wouldn’t even recognize the baby blue of Fenton’s. It wasn’t that he couldn’t control his core. And it was only ever him who could see it. He knew no humans saw Phantom’s eyes when he masqueraded as Fenton (one of his classmates would have made a scene by now), and he knew no ghosts saw Fenton’s eyes when he masqueraded as Phantom (one of his enemies would have called him out as soon as they did). It didn’t matter what eyes he expected to see or what eyes everyone else saw, he could never predict what would stare back at him.

He often wondered why this was. Perhaps it had to do with who he felt like. He was never sure if he was ever really Fenton or Phantom. Maybe he was neither. He didn’t really care, if he was being honest with himself. It didn’t matter what he was called; he was far more than a name, or even a title. He was something bigger and more powerful than could be put in words. He was beyond what even his friends or his sister could comprehend.

If his eyes were truly the windows to his soul, Danny couldn’t help but feel relieved that no one else could truly see them. They wouldn’t understand.


	2. Day Two: Flowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maddie had dropped gardening years ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a couple days behind, but I'm catching up! Also, being behind on day two bodes very well for the next twenty-odd days, but we'll see how this goes!

Maddie had dropped gardening years ago. It had pained her to do so; she had been raised on a farm, after all, surrounded by cows and pigs and hens and apple trees and blueberry bushes. But alas, such was the life of a busy scientist and inventor with two young children. 

That didn’t necessarily stop her from occasionally perusing the flowers at the hardware store, especially the low maintenance ones. Fentonworks often felt too cold, too sterile, and it was her opinion that yarrows or daylilies or maybe even azaleas would bring the color and life it needed. She even had a small hope, hidden deep in the back of her mind in a place she wasn’t even aware of, that she might one day find a blood blossom.

It was a hope that was realized completely on accident. Maddie hadn’t even know what she was looking at until later that night. The small, red, rose-like buds had been mislabeled at the local nursery. Maddie hadn’t given them a second glance. When she got home that afternoon, Jack had been reading through an ancient ghost text, and she had caught a brief glimpse of a page on botany. There, plain as day, was a detailed diagram of the supposedly extinct flower. 

She had gone back to the nursery the next day and bought out the entire stock. They were still as mislabeled as the day before, but Maddie could see a growing spark of understanding in the manager’s eyes as the official town ghost hunter and mad scientist bought every single one. They had barely fit in the back of the Fenton GAV, but fit them she did.

Jazz was more interested in human sciences than the rest of the household, but Jack and Danny, they would definitely be interested. Oh, Maddie was so excited to show them.


	3. Day Three: Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valerie was scared of her reflection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) I am trying to do something similar to what I did with my last phandom-ing: each piece is going to focus on one character and some headcanon I have about them.  
> 2) Also, much like my last phandom-ing, I am, starting now, doing drabbles (100 word ficlets). This does not qualify as such, but is close enough and I kinda needed those extra words to really fit my vision, so... I hope y'all enjoy!

Valerie was scared of her reflection.  
It was a potent fear, the kind that one could taste. A sharp acid in the back of the throat. It was the kind of fear that was never the main villain of nightmares, but was somehow far worse than whatever else one’s mind could think up.  
It was the fear that few people knew. A fear only those who were familiar with what lay beyond the pale veil could possibly have, and even amongst those wise to death, it was rare.   
Danny Fenton hadn’t come home three nights ago, and when she looked in the mirror, Valerie only ever saw a murderer.


	4. Day Four: Science

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Star Wars Day! May the fourth be with you all!!

Danny was pretty sure his interest in astrophysics had spawned from watching Star Wars. There was no specific moment he could remember deciding “I want to be an astronaut,” but he definitely knew that the desire hadn’t been there before the epic space saga, and that it had appeared sometime relatively soon after first watching A New Hope. It was a fantastic tale, a legendary journey that defined scifi and fantasy for decades, and the universe expanding on that unprecedented movie continued to draw him in, time after time.

Jazz liked the prequel trilogy. Danny was looking into disowning sisters.


	5. Day Five: Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He had always wanted to get away.

He had always wanted to get away. Away had been online forums and video games, had turned into a university halfway across the country, had become a fancy internship on the other side of an ocean, and when even that wasn’t enough, he had found himself strapped into the seat labelled “Science Officer” on a rocket that would be taking him all the way to the moon. Somehow, deep down, Mikey knew even the moon wouldn’t be “away” enough. He wasn’t sure there would ever be enough of an “away.” Escaping Amity Park just wasn’t possible, not even through death.


	6. Day Six: Stuck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She means well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up longer than I was expecting, but it was really fun to write, so here you go.

“Move over!”

“You move over!”

“I can’t! I’m stuck”

“Well I can’t either!!”

“I swear on the Infinite Realms, if you do not move over right now, I will tell Wes you’re Phantom!”

“Since when did you use ghost swears?”

“Since when do you?”

“I’m a ghost! I get to use ghost swears!”

“Yeah, well, I'm planning on being a psychology major. I get to test and see if Mom and Dad will ever notice.”

“Have they?”

“No.”

“Oh. Huh.”

“I know, right? Now move! Your knee is digging into my thigh and my leg is falling asleep.”

“It’s not my fault we’re stuck in the janitor’s closet! You dragged me in here!”

“There was a ghost! You weren’t running! I wasn’t just going to leave you.”

“I’m a ghost! My whole job is fighting ghosts! I don’t need to run from them. And now, I’m in here and Skulker’s out there Valerie and Sam and Tucker are probably going to get killed trying to fight him-”

“Valerie? Valerie Gray? She fights ghosts?”

“Wait what? No, um, whoops, mispoke, different Valerie, you don’t know her-”

“Oh my Ancients, Valerie is the Red Huntress, isn’t she?”

“You didn’t hear it from me.”

“Got it.”

“...”

“...”

“If I suggest something, will you maybe listen before arguing with me?”

“That depends. Is it a stupid suggestion?”

“Only because you’re stupid.”

“You’re stupid.”

“You’re a ghost.”

“Are you just now realizing? Good for you. Yes. I am a ghost. How’d you know?”

“You have ghost powers.”

“You have straight A’s.”

“How is that important?”

“I thought we were just stating the obvious.”

“Ancients, you’re oblivious.”

“ _ You’re  _ oblivious.”

“Just phase out of the closet!”

“...”

“And take me with you, please?”

“I really am oblivious, aren’t I?”

“If it’s any consolation, I love you no matter how oblivious you are.”

“Thank you. Now, hold on.”

“Pins and needles! Pins and needles!”

“Calm down. It’s not that bad.”

“That always feels so weird! How do you do it so often?”

“You know, it helps if you’re dead.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.”

“No really! Sam and Tuck feel the same way as you. And I haven’t asked Vlad about it, but Dani seems to be on the same page as me.”

“And when you say Danny…”

“Dani. With an “i”. My clone.”

“Right. Your clone. Your life is so weird.”

“Yep. Now, uh, I’ve gotta go kick Skulker back into last week-”

“It’s ‘into next week.’”

“No, he’s going into last week. Time itself is going to pity him so much it will take him somewhen this beatdown never even happened.”

“Who are you glaring at?”

“No one.”

“What?”

“Probably. If luck is on my side, someone. But probably no one. He wouldn’t bother showing up for something like this. Probably.”

“Um, if you say so.”

“...”

“...”

“That sounded bad.”

“Yeah. See you at home?”

“If I’m late, can you cover for me?”

“Always do. Now go. Do what you do best.”

“Ugh, that was so overdramatic. You don’t need to talk like Lois Lane.”

“Love you, nerd.”

“Back at you, dork.”


	7. Day Seven: Second Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone knew he didn't deserve a second chance

He knew he didn’t deserve a second chance. He had done horrible things in his time, both as Plasmius and as Masters. He had destroyed families, ruined economies of small nations, run Fortune 500 companies into the ground, razed farmland into nothing. But he had never killed anyone. He had never crossed that line. 

And that gave him hope. No matter how bad it got, no matter what had happened, he had never done _ that _ . He could never deserve a second chance, but maybe,  _ maybe _ , he could earn Daniel’s forgiveness. He could do better. That hope was all he needed.


	8. Day Eight: Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One forgets certain things when one lives in Amity Park

When one lived in Amity Park, one tended to forget the dangers that other humans could pose. Getting lost in dark alleys in the scary part of town at night just wasn’t something to worry about. One was much more likely to be attacked my a ghost on Main Street in the middle of the day, and that kind of terror bonded people and led to less crime.

One could get complacent in Amity Park. One forgets that in other cities, people hurt other people. One forgets that if they aren’t careful, they could end up among the dead themselves.


	9. Day Nine: Glow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fentonworks glowed.

Fentonworks glowed.  
Even in broad daylight, Dash could see the building literally emanating a sickly green light. Why the fuck did he ever agree to be tutored there? He was going to die of radiation poisoning before he even hit senior year, which would suck. His coach was already saying he would be the best quarterback in Casper High history next year, so he couldn’t die early!  
Then again, the Fentons had lived there for years. None of them had died, or grown a second head, or even been seriously ecto-contaminated. He’d be fine. The glowing couldn’t be too bad.


	10. Day Ten: Corruption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You're telling me the Ghost Zone has a government?"

“You’re telling me that the Ghost Zone has a government?”  
“Yes, Daniel. That’s the third time I explained it.”  
“And it’s corrupt.”  
“Has been since well before I was aware of it’s existence.”  
“And you want me to claim the throne of Pariah Dark to try and bring order back to the Infinite Realms.”  
“Yes.”  
“And then you want me to declare you as my advisor on everything.”  
“Correct.”  
“Listen, Vlad, I appreciate that we’ve gotten closer recently, but why should I trust you?”  
“Because the alternative is that I claim the throne.”  
“Right! Time to clean up the government!”


	11. Day Eleven: Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You're hypothermic!"

“You’re temperature is 89 degrees! You’re hypothermic, and I’m taking you to the ER right now.”

“I swear, I’m prefectly fine! I just run a little cold.”

“Daniel James Fenton, you are going to get into the GAV and I am going to drive to the hospital.”

“Mom if I was really hypothermic, you’d see the symptoms. I’d be, I don’t know, shivering, or stumbling, or comatose or something?”

“Well, yes, but-”

“And as you can see, I’m not doing any of that.”

“I mean, you aren’t-”

“So I’ll be in my room, calling Sam and Tucker. Love you!”

“Wait, Danny, oh nevermind. He’s fine.”


	12. Day Twelve: Gloves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It should have been green.

They shouldn’t have been red. It should have been green. Ghosts don’t bleed, ghosts don’t have ectoplasm, ghosts can’t feel pain. 

But her gloves were definitely coated in blood, and the thing on the table looked disturbingly human, now that it wasn’t floating. 

She was being paranoid. It was a trick. The ghost was tricking her, making her feel, making her guess her own thoughts.

She picked up the scalpel again, ignoring the shake of her hands. It slipped, covered in red, and she squeezed it tighter. The door at the top of the basement stairs opened.

“Hi, honey.” Her voice didn’t crack. Why was she expecting it to crack?

“Hey Mom. Can I get your help?”

“Oh, Jazz. I thought you were your father. Of course I can help, but I’m in the middle of something here-” Her voice cracked. “Would later work?” Footsteps. Jazz was coming down the stairs.

“Gimme a second. I couldn’t here you super well. What were you-” There was a gasp. She turned around. Jazz was staring past her, foot halfway off the bottom stair.

“I said I could help later, but I’m-” When had Jazz moved? Because now she was standing on the other side of her. Her baby Jazz was standing over the ghost, and she felt herself stumbling back. Had Jazz pushed her?

“Jazz, sweetie, back away from the ghost. It looks weak right now, but it’s been trying to trick me this whole time, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay, I’m here, it’s gonna be alright. I’ve got you, and I’m gonna get you out now.” Jazz was whispering to the ghost. She was promising things, freedom, escape, why was Jazz so comfortable talking to the ghost? “Mom.” Jazz was talking to her now. “Mom, I need you to turn around and go up the stairs.” There was iron in her voice. She listened.

“Hey, Maddie! How’s the dissection going? And where’s Jazz?”

“She, she was talking to the ghost. And she told me to go upstairs.”

“She’s alone with that putrid pile of ectoplasmic scum? She was talking to it? She must be possessed! I’ll go save her!” Jack went bounding down the stairs. She sat down. He came back up too soon. He was saying something. Why couldn’t she hear what he was saying?

There was a note in her hands. Jack must have put it there. It was Danny’s handwriting. And Jazz’s. They had written it together. Had Danny been downstairs as well?

Why were they leaving? Where were they going? It must have been something to do with the ghost.

Her gloves were still red.


	13. Day Thirteen: Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pamela Manson had many regrets in her life.

Pamela Manson had many regrets in her life.

She regretted letting her parents talk her into going to  _ their _ college. She regretted going on that first date with Jeremy. She regretted saying yes. She regretted that it was necessary to cut her parents from her life. She regretted being such a bystander in her own existence that she couldn’t recognize herself in the mirror. She regretted the drunken night with the stranger from the bar.

She never regretted Sam. Sam was the only good thing to come of her miserable life. She would never let Sam be anything like her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I might have Covid-19. That being said, all the defining symptoms of Covid-19 are also the defining symptoms of being an asthmatic with bad allergies and a tendency towards really bad sinus infections (cough cough, me), so my updates might be weird.  
> I'm still going to finish this gosh darn month and I'll do it style, but that style might involve being dead silent for a week and then putting out seven updates at once, so be prepared for that...


	14. Day Fourteen: Breathe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His body physically wouldn't breathe.

He couldn’t breathe. He needed to breathe. His body physically wouldn’t breathe.

There were voices calling a name. He recognized the voices. He was pretty sure they were calling his name. Yes, that was his name. And they were his friends.

He tried to inhale. Tried to exhale. Couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Physically was unable to make the bare minimum of respiratory motion.

Hands reached for his chest. The hands were scratching at his chest, trying to get to his nonfunctional lungs. He went to fight them off. Oh. Those were his hands. 

He looked up at nothing. A bright green crackling swirling nothing. He was afraid of the nothing.

Why couldn’t he breathe?


	15. Day Fifteen: Favorite AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fully Dead AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I probably don't have Covid-19, but I also do probably have a bad cold, a sinus infection, and possibly something digestive. The past few days have been bad, but I'm doing much better now, so here's a four-day update for the price of one!

Danny was so very lucky to have Tucker in his bio class. Mr. Falucca let them pick partners for most group projects, and while teaming up with Danny may have been an educational death sentence, Tucker didn’t particularly care. Both of them were barely treading water in most of their classes. One or two projects not going great wasn’t the end of the world.

But in biology specifically, it meant Tucker could cover for Danny’s lack of a heartbeat, or legitimately terrifying body temperature. Falucca had too many labs that required signs of life to get good results, and Danny would have been discovered long ago if not for Tucker.


	16. Day Sixteen: Bones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was fairly certain bones weren’t supposed to look like that.

He was fairly certain bones weren’t supposed to look like that. The whole “outside of the skin” part was rather disconcerting, if he was being honest. It was too white, too clean, given that the rest of his arm was covered in blood.

Danny was kind of surprised that Skulker had backed off. Ghosts weren’t usually bothered by human injuries. But maybe he’d never actually seen anything this bad. Well, this bad looking.

It was weirdly painless, though he guessed that wouldn’t last too long. Shock was nothing new to him, but compound fractures were, and, dude, bones weren’t supposed to look like that, were they?


	17. Day Seventeen: Childhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She wanted more.

Danielle wanted a childhood. She wanted something to look back upon. She wanted to be old and graying and sitting on her porch, gossiping with her friends about this and that, and be able to say “back in my day” and go off on some unrelated tangent that would leave everyone laughing and smiling. She wanted to be alive, fully alive, so she could age and grow like a normal girl, splash in the mud and lay out under the stars with her family, or even just without being afraid of being seen. She wanted more than to melt away.


	18. Day Eighteen: Horror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What can she say? Horror movies just don't do it for her.

“Oh my gosh, this is so cheesy!”

“Please. You know you’re scared, Paulie.”

“I swear, I’m not. Those effects kind of suck, and when you live around real ghosts for years, movie ones just don’t cut it.”

“Oh, ha ha. ‘I’m from Amity Park, and  _ ghosts _ are  _ real. _ ’ It’s a pretty good tourist trap, Paulie, but ghosts? C’mon!”

“It’s not my fault you don’t believe. But I’m telling you, ghosts are real. Just because Phantom doesn’t stop by and visit me at college doesn’t mean he isn’t out there, right now.”

“AAAAHH!!!”

“Oh calm down, Abby, it’s fake. You can see the wires and everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I might actually continue this post-DannyMay. Like, make it a longer one-shot, or maybe a multi-chapter thing, depending on my time constraints. I just really like the idea of the students of Casper High going on and trying to pretend to be normal college students, but just having really weird skill sets and knowledge.


	19. Day Nineteen: Doors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can hide many things behind a door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Playing around a bit with 2nd person. Not really sure what I think, but it's an interesting exercise.

You can hide many things behind a door.

Secrets can be silently swept into closets and shut away. Boxes of old bits and bobs can fill small rooms with shadows and dark corners.

You didn’t really mean to hide it in there. Your body, the old one that burned to a crisp when the bridge between worlds opened on top of you. It fits nicely in the hall closet, and you really hope no one ever goes in there. 

You’ll move it eventually. There will eventually be a day when the house is empty and you can smuggle it out.


	20. Day Twenty: Sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sky was the only place Danny felt free.

The sky was the only place Danny felt free: soaring up above Amity Park, wind roaring in his ears, clouds skittering along below him. It was only here that Danny could let loose, could embrace both parts of his nature at the same time.

When he cared to notice, he found that his hair was just as likely to be white as black, his eyes blue or green or sometimes both, and his hazmat suit interchanging with his t-shirt and jeans. And he found that it didn’t particularly matter to him.

Out here, in the open sky, he wasn’t Phantom, saviour of the Infinite Realms, nor was he Fenton, loser slacker who went entirely unnoticed in his absolute mediocrity. He was just Danny.


	21. Day Twenty One: Ooze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe Phantom was right.

The blobs oozed up and down her arm. As much as she didn’t trust Phantom, she couldn’t help but agree that the little mindless ghosts were cute. One of them, roughly the size of a baseball, had made it’s way onto her hand, and was trying to gnaw through her suit and into her thumb. It wouldn’t get there - the material was specifically designed to repel ghosts. Another, this one no larger than a golf ball, had begun entertaining itself with her ear. She giggled at the cool touch.

Maybe Phantom was right. Maybe not all ghosts were inherently evil.


	22. Day Twenty Two: Isolation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quarantine sucks, and it's puzzle night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This quarantine is really getting to me...

“Ugh! This sucks!” Jazz lamented, flopping onto the couch. “Like, it was for the best that I stayed, but just ugh!”

“Quarantine sucks, I agree.” Penny, Jazz’s roommate, flopped onto the armchair across from her. “ _ But _ , it’s puzzle night, so stop complaining. I have a two thousand piece one my mother sent me.”

“Of what?”

“You’ll like it. It’s one of those  _ ghosts _ of yours from Amity Park.

Jazz sat up and almost fell off the couch. “Which one?”

“I don’t know, it’s just called Phantom. Like that’s descriptive. I already knew it was gonna be of a ghost-”

Jazz burst out laughing, cutting off anything else Penny had wanted to say.


	23. Day Twenty Three: Lightning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She had always been scared of lightning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big round of updates as I catch up quickly.  
> Also, I really love Dani.

She had always been scared of lightning. There wasn’t a rhyme or reason to it, but the shocks of light and the booming claps that followed set her teeth on edge and her hair standing up straight. Whether it was a long summer storm that she could see coming from three days out or a quick midwestern explosion that came on the wind and left just as soon, she was scared.

It was probably because of Danny. While she hadn’t been formed normally, per se, he had died so traumatically that his ghost had reanimated and possessed it’s own corpse.


	24. Day Twenty Four: Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paulina had always worn a mask.

Paulina always wore a mask. For as long as she could remember, she had been wearing some mask or another.

When she was younger, it was just a smile. Mama and Papa had yelled at each other for hours again last night, and they didn’t need to know she’d been at the top of the stairs the whole time, crying silently.

In middle and high school, it had become high heels and makeup, sharp words and sharper fists. If she took it out on others, she could pretend that she was fine, that she wasn’t breaking inside.

In her senior year, it had been texts, night after night, telling her parents she had a big project due and so was staying over at a friend’s to finish it up. They didn’t need to know that after everyone else was asleep, she and Star would lie on an old beanbag and braid each other's hair, whispering to each other around kisses.

Maybe someday she could take the masks off, but for now, she needed them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Birch Fartman won't give me the wlw representation I deserve, you'd better believe I will write it myself.


	25. Day Twenty Five: Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny liked to go flying.

Danny liked to go flying. If he could make it work, he would disappear for much of the night to go somewhere with more stars. Amity was just too much light pollution, and as Danny could easily fly more than 200 miles per hour, he would often go shooting off, sometimes straight up, to get away. Being dead required significantly less recovery time than being alive, and homework could usually wait. He would go somewhere he could pick out the stars by name lazily floating under hunters and dragons of old.  
Even undead ghostly heros need to take breaks sometimes.


	26. Day Twenty Six: Strange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That Fenton kid sure is strange...

“That Fenton kid sure is strange.”

“What do you mean?”

“You never noticed?”

“What?”

“He’s always running away. It’ll be the middle of a movie, or school, or he’ll be eating with his friends and then he’ll just sprint off.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. And he just kinda knows things.”

“Like what?”

“Like anything. Ancient Egypt, hypothermia, ghosts. Especially ghosts.”

“Probably gets it from his parents.”

“You’d think, but that’s the kicker! Any time he talks, actually  _ talks _ about ghosts, he contradicts everything they say! And he seems offended if you bring it up.”

“...”

“Also, I think he glows.”

“Wait, what?”


	27. Day Twenty Seven: Buried

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's much easier to bury a body than to bury your feelings.

It’s much easier to bury a body than to bury your feelings.

Burying a body is simple. You go somewhere remote. You dig a hole. You take the lumpy shape wrapped in a tarp and drop it in the hole. You cover the hole back up. You try to flatten the dirt so it doesn’t look suspicious. You leave.

Burying feelings is hard. You wake up every morning and know you’ll have to see him, have to look him in the eyes. You have to pretend his heart still beats. You have to play along and say he’s still alive. 


	28. Day Twenty Eight: Diner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey Val! How’s it going?”

“Hey Val! How’s it going?” Phantom asked loudly, throwing open the doors to the Nasty Burger. Valerie, who was manning the cash register, didn’t even look up.

“Well I have this headache that comes and goes, and would you guess what?”

“What?” Valerie finally looked up, making eye contact with Phantom.

“It just came back.”

“That’s no way to treat a customer.”

“You’re dead. Can you even eat?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have money?”

“Also yes.”

“Ugh. Fine. What can I get you today?”

~~~

“You went as Phantom?” Sam whisper-shouted. Tucker looked just as shocked.

“It’s three in the morning. Way less suspicious than going as Fenton.”


	29. Day Twenty Nine: Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fire and lightning were racing along his body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One last frantic push to get the last three written, edited, and posted!

The heat was unbearable. Fire and lightning were racing along his body, burning the muscles, scorching the nerve endings, melting the skin. He would have screamed, would have tried in any way to release the pain that was overpowering his system, but he couldn’t. He could barely even process what was happening.

~~~

“Guys, I’m fine. It was just a light shock.”

“Danny-”

“Seriously! I mean, I didn’t even scream.”

“If you say so.”

“I am saying so. Now c’mon. I don’t wanna be down here when my parents get home.”

“Yeah. They’re gonna freak when they see the portal’s on.”


	30. Day Thirty: Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny didn't know his parents' families.

Danny didn’t know his parents’ extended families. Maddie had been the black sheep from an early age, and had cut all ties upon graduating college. Jack had grown up among ghost hunters and occultists, but those professions didn’t exactly lead to long lives and meeting one’s grandkids.

But that didn’t matter, not to Danny. His family was far larger than just his sister and their parents. He had Sam and Tucker. He had Dora and Frostbite and Dani and Ember and Johnny and Kitty and Youngblood. He had his family, dead and alive. And he would do anything for them.


	31. Day Thirty One: Free Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was the third anniversary.
> 
> Longer one-shot, sort of angst to definite fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! It's complete! All thirty one days! AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

It was the third anniversary. Three years. Three hundred and sixty five days, three times over. Six semesters of high school. Three birthdays. One alternate evil timeline averted. Two kings overthrown. One full country of dead yetis saved. Two different tearful confessions to get the truth out and then set it straight. All within three years. And here it was.

His third Death Day.

The first had passed with little fanfare, just a casual remark from Tucker about how it had been a full year of fighting ghosts. The second had been an overdramatic affair hosted by Skulker, as he was the only ghost who had found out the exact date, that had ended with half of the dead partygoers locked up in prison for such crimes as intoxication, theft, destruction of property, and cursing in the presence of a young ghost, and all of the living partygoers nursing ectoplasmic-drink-induced headaches for weeks. This was his third Death Day, and he had very simple plans: sleep in, order a pizza, annoy Jazz, and game with Tucker and Sam all night.

* * *

“What do you mean you can’t make it?” Danny nearly shouted into the phone. “It’s my Death Day!”

“I know, Danny, and I’m sorry. I really am. My parents didn’t tell me about the gala until this morning!” Sam was genuinely sorry, Danny knew, and she almost sounded embarrassed.

“Do you have to go?”

“I tried to talk them out of it, but I think I’m stuck.”

“Are you able to come over tomorrow?” Danny switched his phone to his other hand, erasing and adding a few things to his whiteboard calendar.

“I can make that work, yeah.”

“Great! Then we can have my party a day late!”

“I’m so sorry!”

“You’re fine, Sam. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Danny hung up and flopped onto his bed. It was less than a minute later when his phone started to ring. Without even checking the caller ID, Danny answered.

“Did you talk them out of it, Sam?”

“Uh, hi Danny,” Tucker answered.

“Oh. Hi Tucker.”

“You sound disappointed to hear me.”

“Sorry, just, Sam can’t make it tonight.” There was silence on the other end, and Danny felt the need to fill it. “Y’know, to my Death Day party?”

“Um, heh heh, I uh, I have something to tell you,” Tucker’s voice dropped to a whisper.

“You can’t make it either, can you.” It wasn’t a question.

“No, I can’t. My aunts and cousins are gonna be in town for the night, and my parents have decided we’re doing a big family dinner. They’re even making me help cook. Tucker’s famous pork roast is on the menu tonight!” Danny held the phone away from his ear as his friend’s volume grew.

“Your aunts are coming to town?”

“Yeah, the lesbian ones.” Tucker sounded exasperated.

“No, I know who you’re talking about. I mean, they’re only gonna be in town for one night?”

“Yeah, road trip stuff. They’re driving cross-country, and are just stopping for the night.”

“So would tomorrow work? Because Sam can make tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow should work, yeah!”

“Great! I’ll see you then,” Danny sighed, hanging up and tossing his phone to the other side of his bed.

“Alright. How’s a halfa to spend a lonely anniversary of being brutally killed by an interdimensional gateway?” he asked into the emptiness of his room.

* * *

There was a knocking at his door. Danny blearily opened one eye. The other was pressed into his pillow and crusted shut. The knocking was incessant.

“Ugh huh ugh,” he croaked out, before falling off his bed with a thump. The knocking stopped.

“Danny? Are you okay?” Jazz’s muffled voice called through the door.

“Ugh.”

“Can I come in?”

“Yes.” The door opened slowly, before Jazz poked her head in.

“Oh, there you are. Are you okay? That doesn’t look comfortable.” Jazz took a few steps into the room and sat on the foot of Danny’s bed. Danny gently floated himself up from his position on the floor, untwisted his body, and sat next to Jazz.

“It wasn’t too uncomfortable.”

“Oh. Uh, okay. Well, can I show you something in the lab?”

“Ugh! What is it?”

“Just a little something I’ve been working on for the past few days. I think you’ll like it.”

Danny groaned and flopped backwards across his bed.

“I’m not really feeling it, Jazz. I’ve kinda had a bad day and I just want to curl up in a ball alone in my room.”

“Danny, I get that you’re tired and probably had plans that got cancelled, but you can get up and walk down stairs and stand in the lab for five minutes. Hell, you can fly down the stairs for all I care. But I really want to show you this, and it’s important to me.”

“Jazz, seriously, I don’t feel like doing anything,” Danny said, rolling to face away from his sister.

“Danny! It’s five minutes! So can you please get over your moping? Besides, I really think you’ll like it.” Jazz reached over to grab Danny’s shoulder, but her hand fell through.

“Jazz, no! I’ve been telling you that for like five minutes! I just want to sit up here and be alone!”

“This is about your Death Day, isn’t it?” Danny glanced over his shoulder, surprise written in his features. “Oh, don’t look like that. I remembered. You didn’t tell me the last two years, but I was at Skulker’s party. And, well, this is kinda about that. But I was expecting to show you tomorrow.”

“Why tomorrow?”

“I thought you were out with Tucker and Sam. You mentioned you had plans, and it was so quiet I thought nobody was home, so I was planning on showing you a little late. But then Mom asked me to come up and check on you. So here I am.” Jazz paused, waiting for a response. When none came, she continued. “You can go back to your moping as soon as we’re done, but since you’re home, can you please come down so I can show you this actually on your Death Day?”

Danny groaned with enough exaggeration to shake the walls of his room slightly. “Fine.”

“Thank you. Now come on.” Jazz grabbed her brother’s hand and pulled him out of his bedroom. She let go when they reached the stairs, but could still feel his presence behind her. To the unaccustomed, being around Danny activated the most primal fight or flight response possible in mankind. Those who didn’t know very rarely identified that it was Danny giving them that reaction, but as someone who had lived so close to him for so long, Jazz was unaffected and could see what happened to everyone else. At this point, most of Casper High didn’t really feel it anymore, but there was always the occasional outsider Jazz could study from afar.

“So, what is it you want to show me?”

“It’s a surprise, but it will definitely help you with your patrols.”

“Can you please tell me?” Jazz thought she could feel Danny making the praying motion with his hands as they entered the kitchen. “Please?”

“It’s literally at the bottom of the stairs. You can wait that long.”

“Fine! But this had better be good.”

They reached the lab doors. Jazz unlocked them and waved her arm for Danny to go first. “After you, little brother.”

“Why are the lights off?” Danny asked, halfway down the stairs. Even with the kitchen light coming from behind them and her brother in his human form, Jazz could see Danny’s slight glow. “I swear, I’m gonna trip and fall and die again. Can you-”

As Danny reached the last step, all the lights in the basement turned on at once. Approximately thirty ghosts shimmered into the visible spectrum as five humans jumped out from behind various boxes, shelves, and tables.

“SURPRISE!”

Danny stopped, eyes wide and jaw dropped.

“Happy Death Day, little brother,” Jazz said as she caught up. Danny turned to look at her, and Jazz took a moment to realize how tall her brother had grown.

“Wait, what?” Jazz was about to answer, but before she could, someone grabbed Danny away and swept him into a hug.

“Happy Death Day!” Tucker shouted, picking Danny up in a hug. As soon as he put him down, Sam picked him up instead.

“You really think either of us would miss this, you big dork?” she asked.

“I-”

“Danny-boy! C’mere!” Jack had picked up his son the instant Sam had set him down. For as tall and as filled out as he was, Danny was incredibly light. “Happy Death Birth Day, son.”

“Dad, that’s-”

“Oh Danny,” Maddie gushed. “Happy Death Day.”

In the ensuing minutes, Danny was swept from human to ghost and back again in seconds. Each being in the room wanted to make sure that they got to wish him a happy day and make sure he knew they were there to celebrate him.

From Dora to Frostbite to Dani to Valerie to Ember to Johnny back to Sam and Tucker to Kitty to the Box Ghost all the way back to Jazz, Danny didn’t know what to say. His friends and family, both alive and dead, were all here. They hadn’t forgotten. They were all here for him.

It was his third Death Day. And he’d be damned if it wasn’t his best one yet.


End file.
